In a rich slate of feature stories, faculty and alumni profiles, and university news and research of note, the spring 2013 edition of Virginia Tech Magazine showcases the university’s educational and instructional excellence, commitment to the student experience, and multifaceted enactment of its land-grand mission.

At Virginia Tech, learning doesn’t end in the classroom, and the university’s residential colleges provide students with live-in faculty mentors and a holistic approach to education that fosters high performance and well-being. In the Residential College at West Ambler Johnston, faculty members Ben and Jennifer Sax oversee a lively intellectual environment that results from living with people of different ages, interests, backgrounds, and goals.

The learning, discovery, and engagement of the land-grant mission are alive and well at Virginia Tech, 150 years after the Morrill Act was signed into law. From logger safety to obesity research, Virginia Tech faculty, staff, and students continue to take this mission to heart, transforming knowledge to practice in a wide range of activities.

Scholars across the Virginia Tech campus are responding to a call for unique approaches to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. Among its many endeavors, including small workshops and broader collaborations that cross college boundaries, the university's efforts to educate the next generation’s brightest minds lead the commonwealth in advancing the impact of STEM disciplines.

An alumnus profile introduces retired U.S. Army Col. Britt Mallow, a member of the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets who graduated in 1977 with a degree in sociology. The former commander of the Department of Defense’s Criminal Investigative Task Force, formed in the aftermath of 9/11, Mallow oversaw more than 1,400 criminal investigations conducted in the global war on terror.

And in the latest installment of How Tech Ticks, go behind the scenes at University Commencement as Virginia Tech’s self-described “commencement junkies” reveal the facts and figures of the university’s graduation ceremony.

Dedicated to its motto, Ut Prosim (That I May Serve), Virginia Tech takes a hands-on, engaging approach to education, preparing scholars to be leaders in their fields and communities. As the commonwealth’s most comprehensive university and its leading research institution, Virginia Tech offers 240 undergraduate and graduate degree programs to more than 31,000 students and manages a research portfolio of $513 million. The university fulfills its land-grant mission of transforming knowledge to practice through technological leadership and by fueling economic growth and job creation locally, regionally, and across Virginia.